Villanova Univeristy Athletics

Carissa Adams enters her 11th season at the helm of the Villanova Rowing program in the 2025-26 season. She came to Villanova ahead of the 2015-16 season and has helped the program grow both on and off the water, building a culture of success, inclusivity and academic prowess. Prior to Villanova, she was the women’s rowing head coach at the University of California Davis from 2006-2015 and an assistant at UC Davis from 2001-2006.
 
Since coming to the Main Line, Adams has coached Villanova to numerous milestones. As a team, the Wildcats have recorded two third place finishes at the Colonial Athletic Association Championships. The first such showing came with the 2017 squad that collected 22 total points before the 2021 team scored a program-high 23 points. She has coached 15 All-CAA honorees since 2016 with two Wildcats receiving the honor at seven of the eight conference regattas in that span. During the 2021-22 campaign, the Varsity Eight won CAA Boat of the Week for back-to-back weeks, the first such honors for the program in team history, after weeks of wins over UConn, Eastern Michigan and a winning performance at the Mason Invitational.
 
Off the water, the Villanova Rowing program has also seen great success in the classroom in Adams’ tenure. Since 2016, the Wildcats have earned CAA Team Academic Excellence honors in both 2018 and 2019, an award that recognizes the institution with the highest collective grade point average in all of the conference’s sponsored sports. The 2021-22 campaign also brought major CAA honors for one Wildcat as Olivia Krause was the league’s Leadership and Sport Excellence Award recipient. A bevy of ‘Cats have been named to both the department’s Athletic Director’s and CAA Commissioner’s Honor Roll lists. Nationally, at least six rowers have been tabbed as CRCA Scholar Athletes each year since 2016 (excluding the 2020 campaign) with a program-high 17 being lauded for the 2022-23 campaign.
 
During her time at UC Davis, Adams had numerous coaching accomplishments, including coaching a student-athlete who was selected for the 2013 U.S. Rowing pre-elite camp, earning ACRA Regional Coach of the Year in 2011 and capturing the Dad Vail Championship Women's Varsity 8 in 2008. In addition to coaching many medal-earning boats at the ACRA championships, Adams coached Division II national championship winning boats in 2001-02 and 2002-03.
 
Adams began her coaching career at Saint Joseph's University where she was the women's novice coach from 1995 to 1997, before becoming the women's novice coach at Villanova from 1997 to 1999. Following her first stint at Villanova, she went to Lewis & Clark College where she was the women's novice coach from 1999 to 2001.
 
She is a 1995 graduate of Saint Joseph's where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Adams also owns a Master of Science degree in Biology (1997) and a Ph.D. in biology (2000) from Temple University.